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Power
Electricity or power is a feature used to power machines without needing to directly give them fuel. Most bases have an area dedicated to generating electricity, then it is transported to the necessary locations via power lines. Players first unlock electricity in the Manual age. Yield and Potential If you hover your mouse over a power line, you will see a bar like this- Yield is how much power you are generating. Potential is how much power you need. Every generator that you have, be it a windmill, a steam engine, or a nuclear reactor, will produce a set amount of yield. So long as the criteria are met fully, they will give out their total output. Putting multiple generators on the same electrical grid will stack increasing the overall yield of your power grid. Every item that you place which needs electricity will require a certain amount of electricity to be supplied at all times in order to work. The red line on their bar shows the minimum amount of electricity needed, which in this case is 120. The maximum amount is indicated when the bar is full, which in this case is 150. Windmills are the first generator players unlock and they give 100 yield each. The power consumption of the above image is that of a Motor Assembly, which shows that it needs at least 120 power to even work, meaning the player will need to place at least 2 windmills in order to even make it work. You cannot give anything too much power, whilst the total yield in this system would be 200, the Motor Assembly only takes 150 at the max, so 50 yield is going to waste here. However the more electrical items placed, the more power is needed, so ensuring that you have enough power for all your electrical machines is a necessity. Generating Electricity Certain items in game will generate electricity when placed. Each item type has specific criteria for production, such as needing to be high up or needing a constant supply of coal and water. When the criteria are met the generator will produce a specific amount of electricity. Giving Electricity Other items are designed purely to transport electricity from your generators to your consumers, which are the devices you are trying to power. They must be connected to each other and to the generators / consumers in order to transfer power. When placing down a power line, a yellow box will appear around it. This shows the reach of the power line, as long as it overlaps the yellow box of another power line, they will be connected. If it overlaps a generator such as a windmill, the windmill will give it power. The same goes for anything that requires electricity, as long as it is within the yellow box of a power line and that power line is connected to a generator (No matter how far away) then it should work. (As long as there is enough yield for the machine of course) In this image you can see 3 power lines, a windmill and an electric inserter. The 2 power lines in the middle are connected, however since the windmill is just 1 tile too far from the yellow box, those power lines will not receive any electricity. Even if the windmill was connected, the electric inserter wouldn't work because the last power line is too far away from the others to connect. In this image the 2 power lines are connected, and the windmill is in the yellow box as well as the electric inserter. This means the inserter is powered, because the power lines are taking the electricity from the windmill to the inserter. It doesn't matter how far away the windmill is, so long as the power lines are all connected the inserter will get power. You can tell when a power line has electricity going through it when the symbol on the front glows yellow. Consumers Consumers are the machines that you are actually trying to power. In order to work they must be connected to your generators via power lines, and there must also be enough yield in order for them to work. This table only shows the types of electrical machines there are, as there is too many to list here. Click the blue names to be taken to the appropriate page.